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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088156">No Accounting</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penknife/pseuds/Penknife'>Penknife</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age: Inquisition</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adamant Fortress (Dragon Age), Dragon Age: Inquisition Quest - Here Lies the Abyss, Gen, Identity Issues, M/M, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition Quest - Demands of the Qun, Pre-The Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus, implied Fenris/Male Hawke - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-09 02:49:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,546</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27088156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Penknife/pseuds/Penknife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hawke seems skeptical about the fact that Bull has a Tevinter magister as a friend. That would be easier to respond to if Bull's friendship with Dorian weren't so damned complicated.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hawke &amp; The Iron Bull, Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>87</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Actually Adoribull Fic, Trick or Treat Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No Accounting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinuous_curve/gifts">osamakes (sinuous_curve)</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They're staying a few days at Adamant, trying to clean up the mess while the Inquisition garrison moves in and the Wardens, what's left of them, prepare to move out. Trevelyan's ordered them back to Skyhold where she can keep an eye on them. Bull figures that's fair. They may need the Wardens, with all of this darkspawn crap to deal with, but the Wardens have gone way off the rails. Someone needs to give them better orders that won't include "let's do blood magic because reasons."</p><p>Dorian looks tired, sitting with a cup of tea in his hands and not drinking it, even though out here by the Abyssal Rift you need something to keep off the morning chill. Dorian kept them all going in the Fade, managing to act unconcerned and a little bored by the approximately ten million demons surrounding them: yes, yes, demons in your head prying out your worst fears, so tiresome, don't you know.</p><p>But Bull knows Dorian doesn't much like the messy battles, the ones that leave a pile of bodies for the pyres and a bunch of grieving people cleaning things up the next day. Dorian is a brilliant and dangerous fighter, but he's not a soldier. He was a scholar, back in Tevinter, before everything went to shit. A scholar who fought a lot of duels, but still a scholar.</p><p>"Drink your tea," Bull says. "It’s getting cold."</p><p>Dorian waves a hand over his cup without looking up, and the cup starts steaming again. "Problem solved."</p><p>It isn't, really -- Bull knows just enough about magic to know that the problem with trying to keep yourself warm that way is that it takes more out of you to heat the tea than you'll get out of drinking it. The weather also isn't cold enough for it to matter. Once the sun gets well over the horizon, it'll go back to being blazing hot.</p><p>And it's fundamentally not his problem, except that Dorian is a friend these days, sort of. That fact shouldn't take up as much room in his head as it does.</p><p>"Have you had breakfast, if it comes to that?" Dorian says, his tone making it an accusation, but the fact that he's asking at all making it some kind of gesture of mutual … Bull has no idea how to finish that sentence, if he's honest.</p><p>"No." He pours himself some tea from the pot that's been hung to stew over the fire, and wishes he had milk for the syrupy mess. It's hot, though, and chases some of the lingering chill of the Fade. It was hard to sleep, much, after that.</p><p>"Tsk. How ever will you grow up big and strong?"</p><p>"That's what my old Tamassran used to say," Bull says.</p><p>"My mother was never up in time for nursery breakfast, but that's what the servants used to tell me," Dorian says. "I'm not actually sure whether it makes it better or worse to imagine that's because my mother told them to."</p><p>"You are in a mood," Bull says.</p><p>"Nonsense, I thrive on this sort of thing. Daring adventure is my forte."</p><p>"Yeah, me, too," Bull says.</p><p>"My, aren't we heroic?" Dorian actually preens a little, despite knowing perfectly well that they're both lying. Bull isn't sure how that works in the man's head, but it's fun to watch Dorian toss his head and strike a pose. "Wouldn't everyone like to be us?"</p><p>Bull has been aware for the last few minutes that Hawke is watching them, not so much like he'd like to be them as like there's something he wants to say. "Your tea's gone cold again," he says, and strolls over to where Hawke is leaning against the battlements, framed by the lightening sky.</p><p>"Suspicious of Qunari, or suspicious of Vints?" Bull asks. "I can see either one, I'm just curious."</p><p>"I'm not used to having breakfast with a Tevinter magister," Hawke says. "Although given my friends, I suppose I don't have that much room to talk."</p><p>"You really don't," Bull says. Dorian hasn't blown up a chantry or stolen anything important or ripped out anybody's heart through their chest, although he has to admit the last one is kind of impressive. "Is it the Tevinter thing, or the magister thing?"</p><p>"I have a … friend … who's not very fond of Tevinter magisters," Hawke says. Bull thinks that "friend" means "lover," but who can tell. "Well, that's not entirely true, he likes it when he can kill them in excitingly violent ways. He was a slave in Tevinter, you see. I try to confine my suspicions to people who deserve them, but I can't help thinking about what he'd say if he were here right now."</p><p>"My people did invade your city," Bull points out. "So it's fair if you're side-eying me, too."</p><p>"Weirdly enough, the Arishok and I always got along, up to a point."</p><p>"Dorian's a good guy. In his own way. And he's a friend."</p><p>"How does that … work for you?"</p><p>Bull wonders whether Hawke is also assuming that "friend" means "lover." It's not that Bull's never considered the idea, it's just that like everything in his life these days, it's complicated. What The Iron Bull would do about wanting to fuck Dorian and what Hissrad would do about wanting to fuck Dorian are refusing to match up in his head. He thinks he used to be more stable than this, someone who was sure who he was and could have dealt with the Fade shit without freaking out, but maybe not since Seheron.</p><p>"It's complicated," Bull says.</p><p>"Well, that's familiar enough."</p><p>"I have some friends who used to be Tevinter slaves, too," Bull says. "If Dorian were the kind of guy who thought everything about Tevinter was great, we wouldn't be friends. Hell, if Dorian were the kind of guy who thought everything about Tevinter was great, he'd probably be Venatori."</p><p>"I suppose if you were running around trying to convert him to the Qun, that wouldn't go over very well with him, either."</p><p>Right. "The Iron Bull" is Tal-Vashoth. Hissrad is pretending to be Tal-Vashoth in public, but admits to being Ben-Hassrath in private to make people trust him by showing that he's already told them a secret, which makes them tell him secrets in return. He then writes reports for the Ben-Hassrath that only include the least damaging information he can think of, and he'll be damned if he knows who he is when he's writing those. Bull would like to think about all of this crap about a hundred percent less, but he has no idea how.</p><p>"Yeah, no," he says, which is a safe enough answer. "But, sure, it's complicated."</p><p>"Life in Kirkwall is beginning to seem simple," Hawke says. "That's probably a very bad sign."</p><p>"So is your friend likely to show up and start ripping out hearts anytime soon?"</p><p>"Ah, you've met Fenris."</p><p>"I read Varric's book," Bull says.</p><p>"No, I deliberately didn't tell him where I was going, so that if I got killed doing this, he wouldn't get himself killed trying to stop me. We have a very straightforward relationship involving complete mutual trust," Hawke says dryly.</p><p>"Whatever works for you."</p><p>"I hate to interrupt," Dorian says, strolling up to lean on the battlements in a graceful way that Bull can't help appreciating, "but the Inquisitor has found some more varghests and requests our help in doing something about them. I pointed out that the entire Western Approach is full of varghests, and that we'll be here a long time if we intend to eradicate them to the last lizard, but apparently these are in an unacceptable location, so it's time for more daring adventure."</p><p>"Varghests aren't much," Bull says. "Hey, maybe we can find a dragon while we're out here. I mean, a real one, not that Archdemon thing."</p><p>"I'm not actually certain it's a true Archdemon," Dorian says. "Remind me to come back to that point." He flashes a smile at Hawke, that sudden focused attention that makes most men who have any interest in sex with other men sit up and take notice. Bull can see Hawke notice, but it doesn't change the skepticism in Hawke's expression. "I'm terribly sorry, we must go wrestle some lizards, it's a passion of ours."</p><p>"There's no accounting for taste," Hawke says.</p><p>"Let's go be heroic," Bull says, because he wants Dorian to turn that flashing smile on him, and it's way too satisfying when Dorian does. It shouldn't warm him that much to know he's going to have Dorian's full attention for a while, at least until they get out there and have to pay attention to the varghests. "How about I hit the varghests really hard and you set them on fire?"</p><p>"Your tactics are revolutionary," Dorian says. "I'm certain that volumes will be written about our varghest-hunting prowess."</p><p>Dealing with varghests is simple. It's nice to have something simple to do right now. He'll think about all the complicated shit later.</p><p>"Have fun," Hawke says, in a tone that makes it clear he isn't going to volunteer to help.</p><p>"We will," Bull says, and drains the last of his tea before following Dorian off to start their day.</p>
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